Strong indications emerged at the weekend that commercial banks will continue to dispense cash to customers via their Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) and over the counter today.
This is coming after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Friday confirmed the evacuation of bank notes from its vault to commercial banks across the country.
This, according to the apex bank, is a coordinated effort designed to ease the circulation of bank notes of various denominations. The CBN also directed all commercial banks to open for operation on Saturdays and Sundays.
According to the bank’s Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, Dr. Isa AbdulMumin, a substantial amount of money in various denominations had been received by the banks for onward circulation to their respective customers.
AbdulMumin also stated that the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele will personally lead teams to monitor the level of compliance by banks in various locations across the country.
He thereafter urged Nigerians to be patient as the current situation would ease off soon with the injection of more naira notes into circulation.
The naira redesign programme, an offshoot of the cashless policy, officially kicked off on December 15, 2022 with the unveiling of new N200, N500 and N1,000 notes.
It was designed to moderate cash spending, tackle terrorism and illicit financial inflows, corruption and other crimes.
The CBN, in its examination of the economy, realised that as at December 2022, N2.7 trillion out of N3.2 trillion currency in circulation was outside the banks.
It also pegged weekly cash withdrawals by individuals and corporate bodies at N500,000 and N5 million, with effect from January 9, 2023.